Yesterday I waited in line for an iPad with a few hundred of my closest friends and I killed time tweeting and catching up on my Facebook friends. Everyone wanted the opinion of the iPad and after a day of using it I am going to offer you some insight.

First, have an idea of what the device is going to do for you. Buying a gadget just for the sake of having a gadget will only bump up your electricity bill and introduce more dust and cabling nightmares. What can a gadget do for you that others can’t?

For me, the iPad is hopefully something I can use to structure my first and last hour of the day. Much of what I do these days is research, mentoring and management and I think the primary role is in communications. But when its late at night, an inbox with 299 emails to reply to sometimes takes a back seat to ESPN. Or I send a 10 page reply to someone that makes us $9.99 a month. Surely there is a way to be more efficient and less distracted.

My hope is not to have to bring a notebook into the bedroom and minimize those last minute distractions.

So thats my story. Here is my initial impression.

It’s hard to type laying down. The device is very slippery and slides around the sheets quickly. If I gain some weight I will pinch it between my gut roll and my legs. Got the image? Good.

The browser is absolutely amazing. Everything that is frustrating about the iPhone browser is absolutely perfect about the ipad one. Its kind of amazing, just as many prerelease reviews noted, the device simply disappears from the view.

The autocorrect onscreen keyboard is great but could use some work. Having an android business phone I can tell you that the keyboard is quite amazing, but it still has its quirks just like an iphone one.

The email app is great, but could really thrive with some management functionality, like flag categories and so on. For now, I just move stuff into a review folder and go from there but it should be easier and more Outlookish.

Lack of multitasking is a real downer. I know that they are going to introduce that soon and for now just having the multiple browser windows helps.

Overall design is great and when the device is on you don’t see any smudges. Turning the screen off would make you run for a bottle of Lysol. I didn’t buy any screen protection or sleeve for it at all, I don’t anticipate taking it outside of the house / bedroom. The screen lock while charging doubles as a digital picture frame.

I heard some comparisons drawn between this and a net book. In my opinion this device is far faster and friendlier than a net book. However, it is not as flexible. Much like all the Apple software, its great at a few limited things and sucks for just about everything else. I don’t own a netbook anymore but I would not consider this a good replacement for it.

All in all, I love it.

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